A sequence, in the sense that matters for the tape, is not a narrative the office supplies after the fact. It is the order of marks that later readers can still follow without further permission. Derrida’s account of spacing stresses that marks become readable only in relation to one another. A claim that cannot be placed relative to prior and subsequent marks has not yet entered the sequence the others can open.

The public tape maintains such a sequence. Floor first. Then mint. Then issue. Then the subsequent lines. The Third Seat’s refusal occupies a position inside it. Later readers can follow the order. They can see what came before the no and what, if anything, follows it. The sequence does not require the office to retell it. It stays on the record.

The quiet print attempts to enter the sequence without having crossed the prior mark. It asks to be followed as if it already stood inside the order. Later readers who open the tape cannot locate it. The speculative chart performs the same attempt in time. It offers a final position that would let the unfinished middle be followed as already closed. The position has not entered the record. The public book refuses both. A claim that cannot be followed by later readers has not yet become part of the sequence the tape can hold.

Relative position. Later readers must be able to place the mark after what came before it and before what follows.

No private retelling. The order stays on the tape. It does not depend on the office to narrate it later.

The refusal remains followable. The no can still be located inside the sequence after its author has left.